USA > Alabama > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 20
USA > Florida > A Catholic history of Alabama and the Floridas Volume 1 > Part 20
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Many fugitive slaves from Georgia and the Caro- linas reached Florida, and Bishop Tejada took the greatest care of them. He placed them at Fort Mase and assigned a young priest to instruct them and pre- pare them for Baptism.
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It seems that the authorities expected the Bishop to induce these slaves to return. St. Paul so advised a runaway slave. But the circumstances were differ- ent. In the Catholic Church, master and slave knelt at the same altar. The Saint taught the slave to serve his master. But he said: " Masters, do to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you, also, have a Master in heaven." St. Vincent be- came a slave, but he escaped at the first opportunity. " In the 13th century," says Lecky " when there were no slaves to be emancipated in France-Christianity had freed the slave-it was usual in many churches, to release caged pigeons on ecclesiastical festivals, in memory of the ancient charity (of freeing slaves), and that some prisoners might still be freed in the Name of Christ."
In 1740, General Oglethorpe, with two thousand regulars, provincials and Indians, and a fleet of five ships and two sloops, laid siege to St. Augustine, but the brave governor refused to surrender. He held out until provisions came for the garrison to save it from starvation, when the founder of Georgia 1 raised the siege. During these days of trial, the Bishop stirred up the faith and piety of the people, and had constant prayers offered for the deliverance of the city.
In 1745, Bishop Tejada who had done so much for religion in Florida was promoted to the See of Meriden, Yucatan, of which he took possession, June 15, 1746. He erected a diocesan Seminary, and re- built many churches from his own income. His
1 Augusta was a general resort for Indian trade. The wealthiest and most conspicuous of Indian traders was George Calphin, a native of Ireland.
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charity extended to Spain, where he founded a Refuge for penitent women. In 1752, he was translated to Guadalajara. On taking possession of his Cathedral, he hung his jeweled cross on the statue of the Blessed Virgin, and wore a wooden cross instead. He was one of the holiest Bishops that adorned the Mexican hierarchy.
In 1743, Fathers, Monaca and de Alana, Jesuits, at- tempted a mission in Southern Florida. With the aid of the sailors they reared a hut for a dwelling and a chapel, and began their labors. The Indians being exceptionally vicious, even to the offering of human sacrifice, showed no inclination to listen to the mis- sioners. Yet the men of God persevered, and a con- gregation of Catholic Indians was formed. They retained the Faith till the Seminole war, when they were transported to the Indian Territory, although they had taken no part in the hostilities against the whites.
The Indian missions had been again and again decimated till 1753, when there were only four left, all containing but one hundred and thirty-six souls. Reduced as St. Augustine was and almost stripped of the great circle of Indian missions which had been the diadem of the Florida church, it was not left without a Bishop. Bishop Carasce, auxiliar of Cuba, resided in the province from 1751 to 1755. When Havana was captured by the English, Bishop Morell, a learned, zealous prelate, who resided there as Bishop of San- tiago, fell into the hands of the enemy. He was treated with great insolence by the Earl of Albemarle, the British Commander. When he refused to force levies from his clergy, he was accused of conspiracy, and summoned to appear before the representative
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of the British crown. Declining to acknowledge these arbitrary measures, he was seized by a file of soldiers, Nov. 4, 1762, and carried in his chair to a man of war, which sailed off with him to Charleston, S. C. After two weeks, he was sent to St. Augustine which was still under the Spanish flag. He reached it, Dec. 8, 1762. He made his unexpected residence in Florida, a season of revived devotion and discipline. He began a formal visitation, Jan. 30, 1763, and recorded his approval of the regularity of the parochial services and chronicles. Between 1762 and 1763, he confirmed six hundred and thirty-nine persons. His sojourn was a perpetual mission for the faithful. After Spain had ceded Florida to England, Feb. 10, 1763, the clergy of Cuba sent a special vessel to convey the Bishop back to his See.
After the cession, the Catholics remained, but the tyranny of the English Commanders led to a general emigration.
The first mass said in Charleston, (1786) was said by an Italian priest, chaplain of a ship bound for South America, which put into port, at the solicitation of a few Irishmen. It is scarcely credible, however, that the above named Bishop remained in that city for two weeks without finding means to celebrate mass ( 1762), though a close watch was kept on all strangers. In 1775, two Catholic Irishmen, accused of tampering with the negroes, were tarred and feathered in Charles- ton.
The arrest of Bishop Morell was the subject of an oil-painting in the Havana Cathedral. He is repre- sented seated in his chair, in his episcopal robes, and carried by four British soldiers. This iniquitous arrest
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is also the subject of a curious poem printed in Havana.
Bishop Morell was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, in Santo Domingo, of which his ancestors were early colonists. He was consecrated Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, Sept. 8, 1755. He founded chari- table institutions, distributed eight hundred dollars a month to the poor, and sixty dollars every Saturday. For the negroes he showed special charity and took measures to secure their religious instruction. He died at Havana, Dec. 30, 1768.
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CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE Spaniards recovered Pensacola only to lose it a second time, Sept. 18, 1719, when it was taken by Count de Champmeslin, with a powerful squadron. Finding he could not hold the place, he set fire to the Fort and town, not even sparing the church, and carry- ing off the Sacred vestments and plate. The earlier churches of Pensacola were dedicated to St. Michael. An elegant silver crucifix of ancient workmanship, the gift of some early benefactor, was preserved to our own time in the Pensacola Church.
Spain, by treaty, ceded Florida to the United States, 1819, and it was included in the limits of the Republic. When restored by England to Spain, St. Augustine was in a deplorable condition. The Catholics were mainly Minorcans, from New Smyrna, with some Indians, remnants of the once prosperous native mis- sions, with a few among the English-speaking settlers. The monastery of Santa Elena from which went out the glad tidings of salvation to all the tribes of the South, Creeks of Alabama, Cherokees of Georgia, had become a barracks.
The Franciscans of Santa Elena, through their Custos and delegate, Father Capote, petitioned the King that they should be put in possession of the Convent and missions which had belonged to them when Florida was ceded to England. He set forth
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that their convent was still standing and they were anxious to resume their labors for the conversion of the Indians.
Governor Zepedes deemed it unadvisable to intro- duce the Franciscans again, until the country was settled by Spaniards and a larger population there. He averred that " the edifice which formerly served as a Convent, was completely transformed, and had lost all appearance of such a habitation for Religious : that it was too far from the city to allow the Religious to furnish promptly to the faithful any consolation; and that in the event of their return, it would be necessary to rebuild the Convent and Church, and set aside a fund to support the friars, till there were people enough to contribute the necessary alms; and that the four priests already there sufficed for the wants of the people." This reasoning prevailed, and the Franciscans could not revive their work in St. Augus- tine, or occupy the Convent, which all documents in this affair recognized as belonging to them.
Bishop Calderon had formerly promulgated at High mass an edict requiring Franciscan Fathers versed in various Indian languages to hold a catechism class every Sunday and holiday, to which all masters under penalty of excommunication and a fine of twenty ducats, were to send their Indian servants. Masters were forbidden to force their Indian servants to work on these days. This good Bishop founded many Churches, and supplied them with plate and vestments. He gave alms to Indian chiefs for their poor, and expended eleven thousand dollars among the faithful in this part of his diocese. In a short time, he con- firmed thirteen thousand one hundred and fifty-two whites and Indians, including many adults. He
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declared that the Indians must be paid for all work done by them for the whites.
The history of these times is full of instances of the extreme kindness of the clergy to the Indians. It was no wonder that the chiefs should write to the King of Spain to express their satisfaction with the missionaries and the Governor, for this merciful legis- lation. It may be remarked that the chiefs were able to sign their own names. There were many schools among the Indians from early days.
And, "looking back," we find it said of an Indian of superior abilities: "The Spaniards who knew Muscozo said of him: 'For grace and discretion, polish of manner and high flown language, this savage chief had nothing to learn from the courts of Kings and emperors.'"
In the history of these people there are many in- stances of the improvement of the Indians,
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CHAPTER XLIX.
ABOUT 1795, perhaps earlier, there was at St. Augustine a Royal Hospital, with its auxiliary Church of Our Lady of Guadaloupe " extra muros," the at- tending physicians being successively, Dr. Fitzpatrick and Dr. Travers. The chaplain was Rev. Francisco Traconis, of the strict observance, who had arrived in 1785, to teach the school. Hospitals were a very old institution in the Church. The Council of Nice, in the 4th century, ordered the building of a Hospital in every city.
When the King of Spain directed that the income of the property in Havana belonging to the Church of St. Augustine should be paid to it, Rev. Michael O'Reilly, who had become assistant to Rev. Thomas Hassett, resolved to erect a Church worthy of the ancient city. He was a saintly priest, full of zeal, energy, and devotion, and anxious to make sacrifices for God. He obtained a fine site, on the northerly side of the Plaza de Armas, and, in April, 1792, he blessed the corner-stone of a large Church. Material from the ruined shrines of Tolomata and Nuestra Señora de la Leche was employed in its construction. It was a massive, solid structure, of the Spanish type, with a moorish aspect, and was finished in August, 1797. The solemn dedication was celebrated on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 1797. A church
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was built worthy of the glorious traditions of the place; but it was destroyed by fire, about a century later.
Fathers, Augustus McCaffrey, Michael Wallis, and Michael Crosby, 1791, erected and maintained chapels on St. John's and St. Mary's Rivers, all sent out by the King of Spain. Rev. Michael O'Reilly was born in Longford, 1762. He labored for his flock alone till 1802, when he was joined by another Irish priest, Rev. Michael Crosby. The Regiment of Hibernia which belonged orginally to the Irish Brigade in the French service, was stationed at St. Augustine at this period, and the names of the Irish soldiers, O'Donovan, Curtis, Delany, Barron, O'Reilly, appear through rank and file, besides many from other countries. The States on the Coast, from Connecticut to Georgia, sent Catholics by birth, or converts. Nor were Indians wanting.
After a holy, zealous life, Rev. Michael O'Reilly died at St. Augustine, in September, 1812. He left by will, a house to the Parish Church, and two houses to be used to establish a Convent of Sisters of the Visitation Order, Bishop Portier used this property to establish a Visitation Convent in Mobile, 1833.
Father O'Reilly was buried in the cemetery at Tolomato, where his box-shaped tomb may still be seen, under a moss-draped tree, the root of which seems to be embedded in the grave. Father Crosby who succeeded him in 1812, was aided by Father Gomez from 1807.
In 1791, the observatines were recalled from Florida. Fathers, Mark Barry, Michael Crosby, and the Carmelite, Michael Walles, were to reside at St. Johns and St. Mary's, (Register de San Miguel de
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Panzacola) at chapels to be erected. Spanish settlers came gradually, forming a congregation for the official parish priest and his assistant. Father O'Reilly was chaplain to the troops forming the garrison of the fort.
Bishop Verot who was the first of what may be called the modern dynasty of Bishops in these regions, did much to revive the memory of the early martyrs. " Time is the only thing of which it is a virtue to be covetous," and Bishop Verot was avaricious of his time, almost to his last moment, for he died suddenly. But hard as he worked, he never got what was justly his. He put others on the track, however, though little good resulted. Ponce de Leon, after a vain search for the fountain of youth, led the way from Cuba to Florida, and Cortez, from Cuba, conquered the Atzec Kingdom of Mexico or New Spain. The old Catholic history, the names of missionaries, and mar- tyrs, and the sites of ancient shrines were investigated and revived by Bishop Verot.
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CHAPTER L.
THE present picturesque Cathedral of St. Augustine is almost a fac-simile of that built of Father O'Reilly. Two wings were erected for the colored Catholics of St. Augustine in Bishop Verot's time, and dedicated to St. Monica and St. Benedict, the Moor. These were pointed out, with some apparent pride, by the chief colored persons of the place, to the writer.
Pensacola had no resident priest when the zealous Bishop Portier accepted the mitre. But it was occa- sionally visited by the Bishop and priests from Mobile. The congregation soon completed a neat frame chapel. But just as the carpenters had finished it, and were putting the last touches to the roof, a hurricane entirely demolished it.
The Catholics increased rapidly after the cession. Baptisms rose from one hundred and forty-eight in 1818, to three hundred and forty-eight in 1822. Pensacola was attended from 1804 by Rev. James Coleman, Parish Priest, and chaplain of the garrison, with occasional aid from army or hospital chaplains, till Feb. 1822, when he retired with the Spanish officials.
Pensacola was once built on Santa Rosa, near the site of the present Fort Pickens, but floods and storms drove the settlement back to the Continent, 1754, and a town was begun on the unrivaled site now occupied
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by Pensacola. Narvaez who discovered the bay, over three centuries ago, called it St. Mary's Bay, but it has long since resumed the name by which it was known to the Indians. It is said that the name Pensa- cola, was that of an Indian tribe living around the Bay which was afterwards destroyed. Mr. Fairbanks says " it was the name of a town of Indians who had been entirely exterminated in conflicts with neighbor- ing tribes." A third authority derives it from a small fortified Spanish seaport, in Aragon, on the shores of the Mediterranean, (Campbell). On a rock, several hundred feet high, is the fortified little seaport of Peniscola, which looks out from its eyrie on the Mediterranean, and its vine-clad cottages. By a singular accident, De Luna's namesake, Peter de Luna, of Aragon, an anti-pope, called Benedict XIII., reigned at Avignon in the 15th century. It is said that he would not make the least concession for sake of peace. This anti-Pope was deposed by the Council of Constance, 1414, and withdrew to his humble home in Peniscola, where he lived in retirement several years, dying in 1424.
It cannot be doubted that the sea-ports of Spain furnished most of the Spanish sailors to American enterprise, in the 16th and 17th centuries. And we can easily believe that some native of the litle town impressed its name on the beautiful bay in fond re- membrance of " Home Sweet Home."
De Luna called the Bay Santa Maria. Another navigator, Don Andres de Pez, would add in honor of the Mexican Viceroy, De Galva, Santa Maria de Galva.
Don Andres took possession of the harbor, 1693. In 1696, Don Andres d' Arriola, with three hundred
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soldiers and settlers, took formal possession of the harbor, and the surrounding country. He built "a square fort with bastions," at Tartar point, now Barrancas, which he named San Carlos. According to Spanish custom, a church was built called also San Carlos. It is said, therefore, that the first notes of a church bell heard within the limits of the United States, rolled over Pensacola Bay and the white hills of Santa Rosa, 1559-1562. (Colonial Florida, R. Campbell.)
Santa Rosa Island a narrow strip of land separated from the mainland by three miles of water, was com- paratively free from danger of surprise by Indians. Fresh water was attainable, by digging wells. Wells and water pools remain on the Orient unchanged for generations. But in the western world we cannot ex- pect to find a pool (Indian) as it existed three hundred years ago. There is no trace of the wells at which the early Pensacolians quenched their thirst. The artist, Don Serres, was a resident of Pensacola, in 1743. The town consisted of forty huts, thatched with palmetto leaves, barracks for a small garrison, a stockade of pine-posts. The sketch shows the Fort, the Church, the Governor's house, the Commandant's house. The church is octagon in shape. The whole sketch is a most interesting relic. "The church " says Camp- bell, " which is so hallowing a feature of the Island Town, is suggestive of the persevering devotion of the Catholic Faith to the Spiritual welfare of her children. In 1559, when De Luna raised his national flag upon the shores of Santa Maria, his spiritual Mother raised her cross beside it. With that sacred symbol, she followed him in his explorations, through the limitless wilderness, beginning and ending each
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day with her holy rites. She returned with Arrivola, and, as he built his fort, her children, under her pious promptings, built her church. As the drum beat the reveil to call the soldier to the activities of life, the notes of the bell reminded him of her presence to admonish and console him. The engraving presents the next effort of her zeal. Afterwards, when the wing of the hurricane, and the wild fury of the waves, had swept away her island sanctuary, and left her children houseless on a desolate shore, she followed them to that hamlet just described, where, around a rude altar, sheltered by the frail thatch of the palmetto, they enjoyed her consoling offices. When, in 1763, their national flag fell from the staff, and her people went into voluntary exile, her cross went with them as their guide and solace. She returned with Galvez, and never for a day since, has she been without her altar and her priest on these shores to perform her rites for the living and the dead. For many years after the establishment of American rule, that altar and that priest were the only means by which the Protestant Mother, more obedient to the divine word than to sectarian prejudice, could obey the sacred mandate, " Suffer the little children to come to Me, and forbid them not!"
RICHARD L. CAMPBELL.
We knew traditionally that the old colored nurses of Pensacola were accustomed, into our own day, to bring their little ones to see the priests and get their blessing.
The hostility of the trustees to the discipline of the Church was maintained for years. The rebellion of these troublesome officials was no unusual occurrence.
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It was, in Scriptural language " like a tale that is told." Ps. 90, 9. An act incorporating the Church at St. Augustine was obtained from the Legislature, 1823, and a more mischievous one in 1824. The house once belonging to the Saintly Bishops auxiliar was given for Protestant services, with the venerable pilgrimages of Our Lady. The local authorities declared that all the powers of the Spanish Kings, under the Bull of Julius II., had passed to the United States and were conveyed to the magnates of a single Church !
At last the priests of mercy took charge of St. Augustine and the missions. In 1847. Rev. Benedict Madeore obtained documents on which he applied to Congress for a restoration, and compensation for the Church property illegally seized and sold. Mr. Madeore, " a venerable and truthful man," said, " that the arbitrator asked him what the Catholics were will- ing to pay for a favorable report, and when he de- clared they were not able to pay anything the decision was made against their claim."
The cavaliers in the West helped the monks, since the main object of both was the saving of souls. Thousands of Indians were Christianized and civilized in these wonderful missions. A full history of Spanish exploration, a most pious and romantic Odessy, has yet to be written. The caravel of the Genoese Sailor, who felt himself the agent of the merciful designs of God to draw new nations to Christ, through His Spouse the Church, had other caravels to follows in its wake, with missioners and cavaliers, not unworthy of Las Casas and the great Admiral.
Missionaries were constantly crossing the seas, not in search of pearls or gold but to teach the peoples of new lands the Sacred Name of Jesus, by which alone
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we can be saved. They builded better than they knew, and their works remain to praise them in the gate.
Moreover, the Friars were everywhere. When per- secuted in one city they fled to another. A Franciscan in brown serge and with sandalled feet, preached the Gospel to the Indians of Western New York.
A most important work, and one which made con- version more easy for the priests, was the building of high-ways, still known as "the King's roads," one was constructed in 1762, from St. Mary's River to St. Augustine, by subscription, and some names indi- cate that South Carolina families resided on parts of this route. East Florida was called the Tory's Paradise. To this day may be seen about St. Augus- tine that much use has been made of a clean bright fossil of great strength in walls and paving-coquina, of which Anastasia Island has immense quarries.
How, it may be asked, were the colonists educated ? Well, in Cuba and New France, they had as good schools as existed in Europe for the people at the same period. We have seen that clergy of Colonial birth, many of whom never went to European Colleges, as Peñalvert, and some of the Bishops of St. Augustine, were as highly educated as any ecclesiastics who came hither from the universities of Europe. The priests were always ready to undertake the education of the young, when no other provision was made for them. New Orleans had as many schools of superior grade in colonial times as now. Mobile had tutors and governesses, and, a most intellectual lady, Madame Green, taught a fashionable boarding school almost to the date of the coming of the Visitation.
There were many Irish boys .at Alcala de Henares who had fled to Catholic realms from persecution at
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home. These children were sometimes found tired and hungry on the quays of Lisbon and other ports. They were placed in Colleges and educated for the missions in Ireland, and in the world-wide Spanish dominions.
Irish priests educated in Spain for the purpose, by its Kings, from King Philip II. did much to preach and preserve the faith in the Florida peninsula, and Irish names are still plentifully scattered over the directory of the Church in the same region.
The classical school which Bishop Texado opened soon after his arrival in St. Augustine, in 1735, was a great success and a real help to the zealous Bishop. It gave him young clerics whom he trained to assist in the sanctuary, and to whom he gave the habit, prob- ably of an acolyte.
Father Francis Texado was a native of Seville, and a member of the Recollect Reform of the Franciscan Order. He had been professor of philosophy and theology, and guardian of the Seville Convent. Re- ligion flourished in the old city of Melendez during the ten years' incumbency of this holy man, 1735-1745. He gave confirmation to six hundred and thirty Span- iards and one hundred and thirty slaves and free negroes. Thus there were at all times, holy and zealous ecclesiastics in these beautiful regions, even when the spoiler " came and saw" but did not al- ways "conquer." True, dreadful expedients were said to be proposed for the extermination of the In- dians. The British Commander-in-Chief, it was al- leged, advocated the spreading of the small-pox virus among the savages. Another, Gladwin, suggested killing them off by rum. There was, too, the divide et impera policy, partly done at St. Marks, Apalachicola,
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